Shocking: 668 children in East Dunbartonshire rely on food banks to eat

Gil Paterson

Published:15:15Tuesday 13 November 2018

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Local SNP MSP Gil Paterson has slammed the UK government’s cuts to welfare, after new figures revealed food bank use in East Dunbartonshire has risen by six per cent since last year.

Shockingly 668 children in East Dunbartonshire live in families who were provided with three-day emergency food supplies between the beginning of April this year and the end of September.

Foodbank providers have said the rise is largely due to the in-built minimum wait of five weeks for a first payment for those migrated to Universal Credit – with many more people forced to wait even longer than five weeks.

Britain’s biggest food bank provider, the Trussell Trust, has called for ‘urgent changes’ to Universal Credit – while the SNP have consistently called for a halt to the roll-out of the scheme.

Last week, the United Nationals Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights visited the UK to investigate the impact of austerity

Gil said: “These are truly heart-breaking figures for East Dunbartonshire, the fact that 668 children should be reliant on foodbanks in order to eat in an area like Easy Dunbartonshire is wrong.

“Food bank use is growing across Scotland which is clearly a damning indictment of UK government cuts to welfare, and the botched roll-out of Universal Credit.

“I see the impact of Tory benefit cuts on a daily basis in my constituency, and the Tories have shown time and time again that they cannot be trusted with social security in Scotland.

“There is only so much the Scottish Government can do to protect the people of Scotland from the heartless right wing Tory Government in Westminster.”